Celebrity Ghosts and Notorious Hauntings

MUSEUMS, LANDMARKS, SPORTS, AND THEATER

From museums to brothels, courthouses to jailhouses, amusement parks to corner bars, if a place is old, abandoned, or steeped in history, chances are it may be haunted. And if someone died there under preferably tragic or horrific circumstances—or more than a few “someones”—then it takes on a whole new level of paranormal possibility. We tend to forget that ghosts can haunt a new building, too, if the person who died there refuses to depart this world for the next. Yet, the lure of history’s mysteries is a strong one, and we’d be hard-pressed to drive by an old, broken-down motel or asylum or enter a restaurant that was once the site of a mass murder and not wonder what spectral spookiness roams among the living.

What if every inch of ground we stand upon is teeming with ghosts just beyond our visual reach? Yet, some places are truly notorious for the strange and supernatural activity that exists within their walls. Some cities are more haunted than others, as if ghosts, like humans, gravitate to specific areas that hold a deeper meaning for them.

Tourists and visitors to such locations may not be aware of the ghostly goings-on. Many of these locations bustle with crowds during the day, so the ghosts only come out at night when all is still and quiet. Other landmarks are said to be haunted 24/7, desolate and abandoned places where there is little life to speak of yet plenty of deathly action for those lucky, or unlucky, enough to be at the right place at the right time.

SPOOKY MUSEUMS

Sometimes it’s the building that is haunted. Sometimes it’s what’s inside the building, as in the case of haunted museums. Whether they display ancient artifacts or modern paranormal objects, ghostly and ghastly attachments seem to come with the territory. Is it possible for ghosts and demons to attach to objects at all? It is, according to the many reports of haunted dolls, toys, paintings, furnishings, weapons, articles of clothing, personal items, torture devices—the list goes on. This makes many museums ripe locations for apparitions and paranormal activity.

Some spirits refuse to give up the material objects they so loved, or were most associated with, in life, or they use these items as vessels and channels to manifest long after their physical death—like little wormholes in space and time connecting the living and the dead. There are many creepy museums all over the world housing all kinds of objects one might associate with ghosts, demons, and paranormal phenomena, but not every museum has been reported to be haunted. Here are a few that have:

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION MUSEUM COMPLEX

So, we start with the biggest of the biggest. The Smithsonian Institution is the largest museum, education, and research complex in the world. Most of the complex’s museums are located in Washington, D.C., but others are spread out in Arizona, Maryland, Texas, Virginia, New York City, Pittsburgh, and even as far away as Panama and Puerto Rico. In fact, there are over two hundred affiliated institutions in forty-five states, Puerto Rico, and Panama that are visited by over thirty million tourists every year!

Founded as a result of a large sum of wealth left by British scientist James Smithson to his son, who had no heirs, the money went to the state with orders to use it to create an establishment for the “increase and diffusion of knowledge,” according to the estate decree. Today, this major historical complex is called “The Nation’s Attic” for the sheer volume of items on display—upward of 154 million items! There are nineteen different museums, nine research centers, and a zoo. Such a huge and sprawling complex no doubt has its many haunted sites, but the most often reported ghosts are the curators themselves!

Reports in the early twentieth century from various night watchmen tell of ghostly apparitions and eerie footsteps that were attributed to noted members of the Smithsonian Institution, including Emil Bessels, an arctic explorer; Fielding Meek, a paleontologist working on-site; Joseph Henry, the institution’s first official secretary; Spencer Baird, the first official curator; and even the founder of the institution, James Smithson, who passed away long before the first museum was ever erected. Smithson’s remains were kept at the main museum from 1904 to 1973, when his body was disinterred on the orders of the current curator at the time, James Good, after numerous sightings of Smithson’s ghost, but his skeleton was right where it should have been in the casket!

MUSEUM OF SHADOWS

Plattsmouth, Nebraska, is home to the Museum of Shadows, considered one of the most haunted museums in the country. The three-story building once housed a saloon and brothel but now contains over one thousand bizarre and haunted items from all over the world. There are public ghost hunts held after hours at the museum, and visitors have reported everything from phantom hands touching them, apparitions roaming around, and even the sound of laughter coming from thin air.

EDGAR ALLAN POE MUSEUMS

Over in Richmond, Virginia, the Poe Museum was built in 1754 in honor of Edgar Allan Poe. It sits just a few blocks away from Poe’s childhood home and boasts several ghosts that are in some way attached to the building. The museum itself holds exhibits devoted to the master of horror, and he is particularly active, according to visitors. His ghost appears to be attached to several items in the museum and may even be responsible for strange goings-on such as a shipment of Poe bobbleheads that were unpacked and put on shelves all by themselves! The other two ghosts are believed to be two blond children who were part of the family who built the house that the museum is located in. Visitors report these children showing up in photographs taken during museum events but are never seen in the museum otherwise.

The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, and the Poe House in Baltimore, Maryland (inset) are both haunted, the former by the spirit of Poe and the latter by his grandmother Elizabeth.

The actual Edgar Allan Poe House is on Amity Street in Baltimore and is said to be haunted not by Poe himself but by Poe’s grandmother, Elizabeth Poe, who died there in 1835. She is said to haunt the room she stayed in, and current visitors might be lucky enough to feel her tap on their shoulders. She also shows up in the form of an old woman with gray hair and a heavy build, dressed in clothing of the era. There was one sighting of the ghost of Poe by a man in 1999 who said he looked up from the street to see Poe sitting in the attic writing. The Poe House is open to the public along with the Poe Museum.

New Orleans, Louisiana, has a reputation for being a haunted city, with ghosts and spirits occupying every corner and roaming every historical home, building, or graveyard. The Bloody Mary Haunted Museum is a haunted locale in the famous French Quarter and home to displays, ghost hunts, tours, and séances to contact the spirits of the dead, many of which are said to exist on the premises. The two-hundred-year-old museum is run by television celebrity, psychic medium, and Voodoo queen Bloody Mary and contains items such as voodoo dolls, a shrine to Voodoo queen Marie Laveau, haunted dolls, authentic, turn-of-the-century occult artifacts, and a “ghost photo gallery.” The museum even offers classes on communicating with the spirit world.

CONNECTICUT MUSEUMS

Coventry, Connecticut’s Nathan Hale Homestead is both a historical site and a haunted museum. Nathan Hale was a soldier and spy during the American Revolutionary War, who was eventually captured by the British and executed in 1776. The home is part of the National Register of Historic Places and also goes by the name “The Deacon Richard Hale House.” Visitors can see how life in Colonial times was lived in the house but may also run into the ghost of Nathan Hale’s father, Deacon, who died there in 1802. His ghost is said to appear wearing colonial clothing as well as the ghost of Nathan’s brother, Joseph, who rattles chains in the basement, and the ghost of a “lady in white” that may have been a household servant. Ironically, no one has ever reported seeing the ghost of Nathan Hale on the premises.

Another haunted museum in Connecticut has a more recent history. The Warrens’ Occult Museum is the oldest occult museum of its kind, according to the website. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors who flock to see famous haunted objects that have appeared on many television reality shows devoted to ghosts and demonic activity as well as a number of movies such as The Conjuring and Annabelle. The late Ed and Lorraine Warren were well known for their paranormal investigations and ghostly interventions, and it’s only natural they put their many artifacts and objects on display. The museum is home to the largest collection of obscure, haunted artifacts, many of which were said to be used in dangerous occult practices and demonic activities. Touch them at your will, although some of these deadly, cursed objects are under glass lock and key. Visitors report seeing the Annabelle doll moving her head up and down as if watching them. The museum is now seeking a new location.

ZAK BAGANS’ HAUNTED MUSEUM

Another famous occult museum is located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Television ghost-hunting star Zak Bagans opened Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum to showcase many of the unusual objects and artifacts he has come across in his years investigating the paranormal. The eleven-thousand-square-foot museum was built in 1938 by Cyril S. Wengert and was alleged to be haunted from the start by ghosts that terrorized family members and guests over the years. Today, the building boasts creepy, winding hallways and even secret passages leading into and out of the thirty rooms of displays. Malicious spirits abound, and Bagans and guests have reported seeing a black-cloaked figure pass through an exhibit’s closed door during a tour. Other guests and staff have also reported spectral activity, including a dark corner where the original staircase from a famous demonic house in Indiana sits, so spooky that during its installation, a construction crew walked off the job. Children under sixteen are not allowed on the premises, and guests are asked to sign a waiver before entering the museum and experiencing what paranormal phenomena awaits.

OHIO MUSEUMS

The Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio, may not be the first place that comes to mind when asking which museums include their own resident ghosts, but to the staff and many visitors, the ghost of famed artist Claude Monet likes making appearances here. The ghost of Monet has been reported surveying the museum site and standing on a balcony above his own art displays. But Monet isn’t the only spectral spectator, for the museum also boasts a number of paranormal events that have occurred there, including the ghost of former museum director William Mathewson Milliken wandering about in the 1916 building and a host of strange electrical, light, and mechanical issues that staff cannot ascribe to any error … of the human kind.

The Mad River & NKP Railroad Society Museum in Bellevue, Ohio, is a museum founded in 1972. However, the building was once a mansion, then a YMCA, and may have more history than first meets the eye. An Ohio paranormal group investigated the site in 2010 and found that the spirit of the original founder was haunting the grounds as well as the ghost of a hobo named Steam Train Maury Graham, whose apparition has appeared on the back of a train caboose.

FORT WORTH, TEXAS

Fort Worth, Texas, is home to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, but it may also be the home of a goblin! This strange creature has been seen near the play area of the museum. Although a former employee named Jim Miller went on record to debunk the sightings after they appeared on the social forum Reddit, the same man admitted to hearing a host of reports of paranormal shenanigans associated with their Titanic exhibit, including shadowy figures moving across security camera footage. Another Reddit user posted a photo of a spectral, old hag that appeared to be stalking children in the museum’s mock grocery store.

ENGLAND’S HAUNTED MUSEUMS

England is home to a particularly spooky museum where books fly off the shelves in the shop (duck!) and a strange, Victorian-era-dressed lady roams around in a blue dress, according to Carl Smith, the museum’s manager. The Torquay Museum was founded in Devon in 1844. Its rich history and collection of antiques and artifacts may be fertile ground for the rise of paranormal activity reported by staff and visitors.

Another terrifying museum in England is the Thackray Medical Museum. Located in Leeds, West Yorkshire, this massive, Victorian building was used in 1861 as the Union Workhorse, where the homeless and poor were sent when they had nowhere else to go. The original on-site infirmary became St. James Hospital in 1925, then closed and reopened in the 1990s as the Medical Museum, housing a collection of supplies, instruments, and equipment. Along with the material objects come a number of ghosts of former inhabitants who provide ample poltergeist activity, shadow figures, phantom hands, and spooky voices.

The British Museum stands out because of its association with a real curse, at least according to those unlucky enough to have experienced it. Located in the Bloomsbury area of London, the museum is dedicated to human history, culture, and art. One of its collections involves ancient, Egyptian artifacts, including an unusually painted mummy board made of plaster and wood. The board was originally the lid of a coffin and has a painted image on it of a priestess. It is said to date back to 900 B.C.E. and was acquired by the museum in 1889. Ever since then, it has been associated with an array of bad luck, enough to eventually label it the “unlucky mummy.”

One photographer who took shots of the coffin lid claimed when he developed the photo plates, the mummy’s face had changed. It was not the calm, serene face depicted on the board but instead was the face of a living Egyptian woman with a malevolent stare. A few weeks later, that photographer died under mysterious circumstances. Other photo plates show a tormented, anguished face or a furiously angry face. Sometimes, staff reported strange noises near the exhibit and the sound of a woman crying.

Writer Bertram Fletcher Robinson investigated the mummy board’s history and found a long list of accidents and deaths associated with it. The most noteworthy cursed incident occurred after it was sold to an American buyer and shipped on board a large vessel known as the Titanic. The rest, as they say, is history.

WESTERN SPOOKY PLACES
THE O.K. CORRAL

A haunted corral? OK! As in the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, considered one of the spookiest places in the state. This Wild West town was founded back in 1877 by a silver prospector and has kept its historic appearance and a few ghosts as well. Residents and visitors report seeing apparitions of dark, shadowy figures at the corral, even apparitions of cowboys in their traditional gun-fighting stance, as well as a tall, dark man who rises from a park bench. The nearby Boothill Graveyard, named because many of the men buried their dead with their boots on, is a favorite stomping ground for ghosts, including the spirit of Billy Clanton, a notorious cowboy shot dead by Wyatt Earp in the famous gun-fight at the O.K. Corral. He is seen regularly walking about the cemetery and into town.

Tombstone, Arizona, circa 1880, around the time of the shootout between the Clanton gang and the Earps.

Tombstone was also home to a theater, saloon, and gambling hall called the Bird Cage Theater, and during the eight short years it was open, it also became a brothel and the scene of twenty-six murders. This may explain the sounds of phantom music and voices that come from inside the building, even though it has been closed for years. It is not a popular tourist spot and a favorite site for ghost hunters.

Arizona is also home to the Red Garter Inn in the city of Williams. This inn is over a hundred years old and was once a bordello, saloon, rooming house, general store, and opium den! It was built in 1897 by a German tailor with hopes of cashing in on the local copper boom in the nearby Grand Canyon. Because of its reputation as a bordello, drug den, and saloon, the local sheriff was often called there to investigate murders or brawls courtesy of the many visiting cowboys, loggers, miners, and railroad workers coming through town.

A murder allegedly took place on the stairs of the inn and led to a crackdown on bordellos throughout the city and the closure of both the saloon and brothel on-site. Later, the building became a rooming house and a general store. Once it became the Red Garter Bed and Bakery, staff and guests began reporting ghostly activity such as doors slamming shut, footsteps, and clunking noises throughout the building, beds in the inn shaking for no reason, and the feeling of someone touching people’s arms. There are numerous reports of the apparition of a young, Hispanic girl with long, dark hair who no one seems to be able to identify but who has told psychic mediums during séances that her name is “Eve” or “Eva.”

Formerly the Navajo County courthouse, where infamous murderer Goerge Smiley was tried and hanged, the building is now a historical museum.

Navajo County, Arizona, is home to a courthouse dating back to 1898 that would become the location of notorious trials over the years. The basement housed jail cells, and the courthouse boasted no escapees from the small, dark rooms. One of the more notorious prisoners held there was George Smiley, a murderer who was scheduled to hang in front of invited Arizona officials in 1899. But his execution was stayed for thirty days and then rescheduled, and eventually, Smiley was executed by hanging in January 1900. The courthouse served the Navajo County public until 1976 and since then has become the Holbrook Chamber of Commerce, the Visitor Center, and the Navajo County Historical Museum. Those who visit and work there claim the ghost of George Smiley lurks about the building, pacing up and down halls and stairs, closing doors, and making all kinds of strange noises. Staff members also report objects moving around on their own, no doubt at the hands of the man who died there, or could it be the work of another ghost on the premises? A former prisoner named Mary is often seen looking out the windows of the building. She died in one of the small, dark prison cells while looking out the window and dreaming of being free.

LA LLORONA OF THE SOUTHWEST

Throughout the Southwest, the legend of La Llorona, which is Spanish for “weeping woman,” is a pervasive part of Hispanic culture and lore. The ghost appears as a tall, thin woman with long, black hair and a beautiful face. She wears a white gown and walks along rivers and creeks, wailing loudly at night as she searches for child victims to drag into the river. Such a cruel legend has many origins, one involving a mother who drowned her children and now eternally searches for them in the rivers, creeks, and lakes of the region. She may have been a peasant, but her beauty caught the eyes of many male admirers.

Legend has it her name was Maria, and she left her children home alone while she went out with men. Perhaps the children drowned on their own, but many say she killed them. Yet another legend claims Maria was a sweet, good woman who was the victim of an abusive, cheating husband who turned against her own children in a rage, only to deeply regret it when she tried to save them but couldn’t.

No matter the origin of this story, many people claim to witness La Llorona walking and weeping in her white gown along the banks of the Santa Fe River but also along creek beds near Mora and Guadalupita, New Mexico, where she often is seen floating on the water itself. As with most legends, this one has grown, and La Llorona has been reported across the region at a variety of lakes, rivers, and creeks, although most of the sightings occur at night. She has been seen as far north as Montana, walking the banks of the Yellowstone River, sadly searching for her dead children.

SPORTS GHOSTS

From the desert Southwest to Chicago’s Wrigley Field, ghosts are everywhere. According to Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon in their book Haunted Baseball, Wrigley Field is an actual haunted ballpark complete with the ghosts of those who once loved the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Security guards report hearing the bullpen telephone ring in the middle of the night. They believe the caller is former Cubs manager Charlie Grimes, who worked with the team in the 1930s and 1940s and whose ashes are buried out in left field. There have been reports of Grimes’s ghost walking the hallways, disappearing when he’s spoken to.

Other staff and fans report seeing the ghost of famous broadcaster Harry Caray in the press box and in the outfield bleachers as well as the ghost of Steve Goodman, who wrote the popular Cubs anthem “Go, Cubs, Go.” He is often seen sitting behind the batter’s box, and it is rumored his own ashes are buried beneath home plate.

ALABAMA’S HAUNTED FIELD

After the Civil War battle of Shiloh, the Montgomery Military Prison was established in the spring of 1862 and housed over seven hundred prisoner soldiers. Historic records show the prisoners were kept under harsh conditions, and many went without much food or water. One hundred ninety-eight men died of disease and starvation, and many were buried in the Oakwood Cemetery nearby. Some of the soldiers were buried in nearby National Cemetery in Marietta, but some remained behind. The Montgomery Biscuits sports stadium now sits where the filthy prison once existed, and many attending baseball games there have seen ghosts of dirty soldiers wearing torn, filthy clothing. One in particular is seen every summer huddling near the fence trying to stay warm in the sun. Those who dare to approach him find that he vanishes before they can reach out a hand to him.

In the early hours of the morning, people have heard phantom screams and moans from within the stadium, and a dark, skeleton-like figure often appears during the seventh-inning stretch.

THE GHOST OF EDDIE PLANK

Eddie Plank had the honor of being Major League Baseball’s first left-handed pitcher to win three hundred games. His career ended in 1917 with 326 victories. After his death in 1926, his ghost has been haunting his former house in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where the current owner has heard and seen Plank trying to pitch to a phantom catcher. The owner stated that the series of sounds exactly fit the process of Plank winding up and pitching the ball at a length of sixty feet and six inches, the distance from the pitcher’s mound to home plate. After about a month, the sounds ceased. Maybe Plank went off to play in the majors in heaven.

Pitcher Eddie Plank played for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 to 1914. He passed away twelve years later, apparently lingering by his Gettysburg house after his death.

FRONTIER FIELD

Rochester, New York’s Frontier Baseball Field was built in 1996 and currently is home to the International League’s Rochester Red Wings. According to an ESPN report in 2005, the stadium construction crew turned up some human bones and believed the grounds may have been haunted, possibly an ancient burial site. A Rochester paranormal group came in to investigate and found a number of ghosts on-site, and photos taken by their director, J. Burkhart, show apparitions, floating heads, and ghostly figures.

FOOTBALL GHOSTS

A number of haunted football stadiums exist around the country. Though the sport isn’t usually associated with the paranormal, ghosts like to hang out where the pigskin flies downfield.

Indiana University was attended by a student named Michael Plume in 1960. He was an active Air Force member and suffered a mysterious death. He was found hanging from the rafters of the west side of the stadium stands, still under construction. He was only nineteen years old. His shoes were clean, which added to the mystery of his suicide. Some locals believed he might have been involved in spying or a murder, but his death was ruled a suicide. His ghost lingers at Memorial Stadium on the campus and is often seen dangling from the same spot he was hanged from.

Lee Williams High School in Kingman, Arizona, was built upon the Old Pioneer Cemetery that was once filled with hundreds of coffins of the original Kingman settlers and members of the local Hualapi Native American tribe. The football field and bleachers are on sacred ground, and when renovations in 2010 turned up dozens of coffins and artifacts, the ghosts may have been freed to begin roaming the site. Nowadays, the stadium is haunted by a man in a bowler hat, a little girl who always wants to play, and a host of disembodied voices and orbs of light.

Attend a football game at Kansas State University, and you might run across a spirit named Nick, a player who was injured during a game and was taken to the campus cafeteria to be attended to. He died later. The place he died is now home to the Purple Masque Theater, and Nick is always around moving chairs and playing music, making wooden crates levitate in the air, and spinning fire extinguishers on the wall.

HOCKEY GHOSTS

The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada, is filled with hockey history and a few spirits to boot. The hall is haunted by a gal named Dorothy, who was a Bank of Montréal teller who used to be in the same building. Dorothy showed up for work one day in 1953 and out of the blue decided to shoot herself. Nobody knows why, but employees of the bank began hearing strange noises shortly afterward, and items on their desks would move around. Dorothy continues to haunt the building, usually accompanied by cold spots and strange sensations of being watched.

BOBBY MACKEY’S MUSIC WORLD

Bobby Mackey’s Music World used to be a slaughterhouse, which gives it a built-in sense of horror. Known to be a “gateway to hell,” according to many ghost hunters, this Wilder, Kentucky, nightclub has quite the notorious haunted reputation. In the 1850s, it was indeed home to a large slaughterhouse and meat-packing plant. A well beneath the building captured the blood, guts, and waste from the slaughtered animals above. Though the slaughterhouse closed way back in the 1890s, it then became, according to legend, a meeting spot for Satanic groups who not only sacrificed animals near the blood-filled well but other humans, too.

In 1896, a horrific murder of a twenty-two-year-old woman made headlines and added to the area’s already creepy reputation. Pearl Bryan was a young, pregnant woman from Greencastle, Indiana. Her boyfriend, Scott Jackson, was a college student at the Indianapolis Dental College and tried to get her to go to Cincinnati, where he would help her get an abortion. Unfortunately, he and his roommate, Alonzo Walling, tried to do the abortion themselves and ended up killing Pearl’s. They wanted to cover their tracks, so they surgically cut off her head and left her body in an empty field near the former slaughterhouse. Stupidly, they left Pearl’s shoes on, which helped identify her and lead the police back to the two young men along with testimony from one of Scott Jackson’s friends, a pastor named William Wood, who confessed later that Scott had come to him to ask what to do about Pearl’s unwanted pregnancy (unwanted by him, that is).

Upon arrest, Jackson and Walling both accused each other of the murder. They were both charged with the crime. On the gallows, Alonzo Walling vowed to haunt the area after his death. Both he and Scott Jackson were hanged to death on March 20, 1897, but they took a long time to finally die because their necks were not broken right away. It was later revealed they administered massive doses of cocaine to Pearl, then causing her death by the back-alley-style abortion.

Interestingly, Wood admitted he, too, had intercourse with Pearl, which put into question whose baby she was carrying.

During Prohibition, a new building was built with a casino, nightclub, and speakeasy. After Prohibition, the building became known as the “Primrose” and eventually drew the attention of mobsters who wanted to control the casino operations. After much violence and attempted murder, the building later became the “Latin Quarter” dance club in the 1950s, where a young, pregnant dance hall girl named Johanna fell in love with a singer. Her father had the singer killed by a hit man, and Johanna then poisoned her father and committed suicide in the basement of the building. Later, in the late 1970s, a number of fatal shootings shut down the club.

It wasn’t until 1978 that a country singer named Bobby Mackey bought the building and made it a music hall and tavern, which stands today. With its rich paranormal history, it’s only natural that staff members and patrons report a host of ghostly activity, including phantom footsteps, a demonically possessed former caretaker (his actual exorcism was performed by a minister on the premises), flying trash cans, the overwhelming smell of roses in the basement, poltergeist activity, physical attacks by phantom spirits in the basement where the portal to hell still exists, lights turning on and off, hot and cold spots with no definable sources, and a headless ghost dressed in clothing Pearl Bryan may have worn before she was beheaded by the man she loved.

The location is a favorite spot for ghost hunters and paranormal tours, as apparitions and demonic activity is said to be pretty consistent there on any given day … or night.

Looking for another haunted watering hole? Captain Tony’s Saloon in Key West, Florida, has a history of being a speakeasy, a cigar factory, a city morgue, and a wireless telegraph station. The site of many tragedies over the years, it’s no wonder many visitors report ghosts in the bar. Perhaps they are the ghosts of people whose bodies were washed out into the street during a hurricane when the building housed the morgue. Maybe they are the spirits of the people who were killed and buried between walls during major renovations. Rumor has it a woman even murdered her own child in one of the bathrooms, and a tree that grows up through the roof of the building was said to be the place where several townspeople were hanged, including a woman who was said to be wearing a blue dress covered in the blood of family members she murdered. Today, patrons of this pub report seeing the ghost of a lady in blue, hearing sounds and sensations they cannot explain, and hearing bathroom stall doors slam shut when no one is in the room.